Ivar the Boneless

Who was he ?
  Viking chieftain, of Danish origin, whose life story is suffused
with legend. 
 best known for his exploits on the British Isles, most notably his
invasion, in the company of two brothers, of several Anglo-
Saxon kingdoms.

Backstory and origin

 Ivar was said to be the son of the Danish king Ragnar Lothbrok
 He was a leader of the Sheppey expedition of 855 that occupied an
isle near the mouth of the River Thames.
 He is also recorded as the companion of Olaf the White, known to
history as the Danish king of Dublin 

Ivar and his brothers relations

 Ivar and his brothers Halfdan and Hubba invaded Great Britain in
the year 865 at the head of a large Viking force described by fearful
Christians as the “Great Heathen Army.” 
 Their motivation behind this act was to avenge their fallen father who
has died after being captured while raiding kingdom of Northumbria

Fictional cause of this

 Ragnar was said to have been thrown into a pit filled with
poisonous snakes on the orders of King Aella of Northumbria.
Ivar's army arrived in the kingdom of East Anglia, facing minimal
opposition, and proceeded to Northumbria. In 866, they
successfully seized the capital city of York. While Aella and Osbert,
the Northumbrian king whom Aella had overthrown, were not
captured at that time, they were both slain in a subsequent battle
in March 867. According to certain reports, the Vikings sought
revenge and subjected Aella to a horrific and brutal torture-
execution.
 After placing a ruler named Egbert as a puppet in Northumbria,
Ivar led the Vikings to Nottingham, which was part of the kingdom
 of Mercia. The Mercian king Burgred sought assistance from
Wessex, and King Aethelred I along with the future King Alfred
(Alfred the Great) arrived to lay siege to Nottingham. However, the
Danes retreated to York without engaging in battle. They remained
in York for approximately a year before crossing back through
Mercia and returning to East Anglia, where they defeated King
Edmund in a battle

Ivar did not participate in the Viking campaign

It seems that Ivar did not participate in the Viking campaign, which was ultimately
unsuccessful, to conquer Wessex from King Alfred during the 870s. Instead, he joined
forces again with Olaf the White and ventured into what is now Scotland. Their army
successfully conquered and destroyed Dumbarton, the capital of the Strathclyde
kingdom, in 870. The following year, they triumphantly returned to Dublin. Ivar, now
recognized as the "king of the Norsemen of all Ireland and Britain," passed away in
873.

Why was he called Ivar the boneless ?

Theory that Ivar suffered osteogenesis imperfecta, though
there is much dispute whether the skeleton is indeed that
of Ivar the Boneless
So knowing that this is a theory we may say that
“Boneless” was perhaps meant in a figurative sense, a
nickname of some sorts.